The present thesis is a study of the Swedish Union of Tenants, an organisation with a long popular movement history, working in an ever-changing environment.

The Swedish Union of Tenants is one of the major popular movements and has strongly influenced Swedish housing policy development including the 1978 reform concerning tenants’ right to negotiate rents collectively. Although it is a powerful organisation it is repeatedly exposed to external pressures for change on an issue it considers highly important including the 1978 reform. The purpose of the thesis is to generate knowledge concerning how an old popular movement organisation is affected by its external environment and how it reacts when traditions and institutions are exposed to contemporary pressures for change. The thesis investigates the Swedish Union of Tenants’ strategies for safeguarding the interests of its members as well as other tenants. Thre einstitutions within the framework of the organisation’s operations are examined in the thesis: the collective model of negotiations, tenant participation in decision making and the membership. The empirical materials primarily consist of internal organisational documents and interviews. The theoretical starting point has been institutional logics, organisational logics, logics of action and path dependency. The results portray how the complex operations of the organisation spur conflicts of interest whilst, at the same time, the operations mutually reinforce each other. Furthermore, the results demonstrate how the organisation’s operations interact with its environment to safeguard the interests of members and other tenants. Using my theoretical concepts, I have developed a model for the analysis of a complex organisation and the interactions within the organisation’s operational functions as well as with the external environment.

Hur gör Hyresgästföreningen för att tillvarata sina medlemmars och övriga bostadshyresgästers intressen på 2000-talet? Det är den övergripande frågan i den här avhandlingen som undersöker hur en gammal folkrörelseorganisation med en bred och komplex verksamhet navigerar i ett samhälle som har förändrats mycket under de 100 år som organisationen har verkat. Vad händer med en organisation som har haft stort inflytande och makt under 1900-talet när grunden för deras verksamhet utmanas och ifrågasätts? Genom att studera tre institutioner inom Hyresgästföreningen undersöks organisationens inre liv för att hitta intressemotsättningar och ömsesidig förstärkning mellan verksamheterna förhandling, boinflytande, bostadspolitik och juridik. Vidare studeras medlemskapet i Hyresgästföreningen, dess betydelse och medlemmarnas olika roller. Fokus ligger på organisationens invärld, men den studeras i ljuset av omvärldens påverkan på organisationens verksamhet.